In the method described here for processing containers, the containers are transported along a predefined transport path and combined with at least one product that can be defined in terms of its amount, such that the product is supplied to each individual container in a predetermined supply region of the transport path, the product being guided to the supply region along a supply path. In this case, the “amount” variable refers to a weight, a volume, a number of pieces, and/or a length of the product.
Methods of this kind for processing containers are, however, well known in the known art, for example in DE 10 2008 037 708 B4. However, in the method known from the known art, the problem arises that losses in production time are incurred when there is a product changeover or also a roll changeover.
In order to carry out maintenance tasks of this kind on the machines so as to incur as little a loss in production time as possible, the individual magazines are deliberately made larger so as to minimize the number of such processes. It is also known to arrange different or similar kinds of magazine at a central location in order to centralize working tasks that may arise.
However, for this purpose it is necessary for the used transport units to accommodate large amounts or large numbers of pieces of the corresponding goods. Furthermore, in individual applications using mass transport units that change over automatically, such as rolls in magazines, it is known to carry out a changeover such that the fitting processes of mass transport units are additionally temporally shortened.
However, magazines or transport units of such a large size are problematic, in particular in the event of a production program changeover in the line, since large magazines or reservoirs in transport units have to be emptied at the end of the manufacturing process. This process takes a relatively long time, and it may be that the corresponding packaging materials and filling goods can no longer be used and are therefore considered scrap.
In order to solve this problem and in particular in order to facilitate, for example, a roll changeover such that changeover times may be kept as short as possible, the known art proposes, for example, the possibility of continuously determining the content of the containers, for example by means of a shift register in a device for processing, for example filling, containers. By the content of the containers being continuously determined, a conclusion can thus be drawn as to, for example, when and how many containers are still in the filling machine in order to be then labelled.
Furthermore, for example by an automatic control system comprising a display, it can be displayed to an operator, during production itself, from what time one of the rolls having the labels for the next product can be fitted once there are sufficient remaining labels available on the other roll.
Such a decision as to whether to pre-emptively fit the new roll having labels in advance is made, for example, on the basis of a stored number of labels on the particular roll or the roll to be fitted. Upon input of the number of remaining containers from a filling machine, the number of labels can therefore also be displayed. Accordingly, information can therefore be forwarded to the operator as to a forthcoming label and/or roll changeover. This can therefore be displayed as a message reading “labels for the next type can be provided”, for example.
In this respect, only with the number of labels on the particular rolls as a basis for calculation has it previously been possible to carry out an early changeover of the labels. A decisive criterion for an early label changeover of this kind, so as to avoid having to interrupt the production process as far as possible and to deposit and apply labels on the bottles that are filled or are to be filled in a manner that is as continuous as possible, is therefore based to a significant degree on the predetermined value for the number of labels on the, preferably full, roll.
However, it has frequently been found that the predetermined number of labels on the roll, i.e. an expected value for the number of labels on the roll, may deviate from the actual number of labels on the roll. In the known art, this deviation has also previously been solved by the number of labels being checked and determined discretely or continuously over time by a sensor, a sensor system of this kind also having a high degree of error.
In particular, it has been found specifically that a process of this kind for determining a time from which it is possible to fit a new roll having labels on the basis of the input value (a number of labels, for example), which can only be determined roughly, is ridden with errors, and that this may also unsettle the operator when handling the machine.